Separate card reader devices including a smart card reader, for interconnection between a computer keyboard console and a personal computer (PC) have been described in the prior art, for example EP-A-0,486,363 (Thomson-CSF). This describes a smart card read/write unit in a self-contained housing with connections to the computer keyboard and a port on the computer. If specific instructions are entered at the keyboard, data may be read from the smart card and written to the smart card. Numerous devices have been described in the prior art relating to point of sale (POS) devices and automatic cash dispenser machines which may include a key pad and a credit, debit or cash card reader with a magnetic strip including encoded PIN data for communication to a remote computer. However, these are mentioned by way of background only and are not directly relevant to the present invention, which is concerned with a keyboard for a personal computer (PC), network computer (NC), or Internet appliance.
The keyboard console is the standard input device on all personal computers and network computers, and it is particularly in a network environment where security of access by individual users becomes important, i.e. controlling access by certain authorised individuals and restricting access to certain software applications by authorised individuals is an important issue. In order to conduct electronic commerce across a network of computers, such as the Internet, smart cards and similar devices are used for example to transfer "digital cash", to make a credit transfer, or to debit an individual's bank account, and these transactions will increasingly be conducted from a PC or NC with the aid of a card reader device.
A security problem exists with many prior art arrangements in that once encoded data such as PIN data is read from the user's card, whether to initially "unlock" further functionality of the card or to validate data subsequently entered, the PIN details are communicated to a host computer or network server, with the possibility of interception, diversion or corruption. In certain cases, it may not be absolutely necessary to transmit the PIN details to the host, in particular for personal identification purposes and for unloading the card's functionality.